Jesse Eisenberg

By Richard Corliss and Mary Pols

The Social Network

To get inside The Social Network's fictionalized Mark Zuckerberg, Eisenberg perfected the laser gaze. "There's a sort of aloof stare that I tried to develop," he says, "and once I captured it, I felt more comfortable." Eisenberg, 27, who broke out in 2005's The Squid and the Whale, is pleased with his Best Actor Oscar nomination but says, "It's more challenging to work on a character that's not as rich as the one Aaron Sorkin wrote. In a way, it feels strange to receive so much attention for this."